"To answer your question on why we can't see the Milky Way I think it's because somehow this ripple of gravity also shut off or absorbed all the light in its path. It must have been gigantic if it reached out as far as the Andromeda galaxy.”
"So, at the event that is why the sky is black," said Elizabeth
"Yes. And as we come forward in time the light from the stars begins to arrive again. It's just that in 2016 most of the light from the stars in the Milky Way have not reached us yet."
"Seems plausible, Urquhart," said Marco.
See what I mean? If it sounds sensible then it must be true. I was just beginning to wonder where I could introduce the turtle into my explanation when Elizabeth, sensing I was beginning to lose my marbles, came to my assistance.
-----------------
E.
I felt that it was a little unfair that James and I were having to answer all the questions as we had not volunteered for anything and that Mr Wells, Mr Batalia and the Martian creature should be a little more accountable. It was time to bat back the balls that they were bowling at us.
"Mr Wells. What is the relationship between you and the Martians?"
For the first time in our acquaintance he looked uncomfortable.
He said, "Have you read my manuscript on the visit of the angel?"
I replied that I had not as his books were after my time.
"It describes a creature that was thought to be one who came to Earth and was shot by a vicar. Yes, I know. It is quite shocking. But it is a true story. I found the ‘Angel’ and took it under my wing so to speak. I nursed it back to health. In return it told me everything about Mars including how they could see a little into the future."
"And they showed you how to travel in time?"
"No, but they allowed me in my dreams to detach myself from my corporeal body and see the future."
"So how did you visit Mr Hyatt in your youth?"
"I took Mr Batalia's time machine."
"What!" said Mr Batalia, looking rather shocked. "When?"
"Shortly before Mr and Mrs Urquhart found me in the cavern examining the machine, I had already borrowed it for the purpose you state."
James exclaimed almost in despair, "Is there anyone here who hasn't used us?"
Mr Hyatt raised his hand in the manner of a child at his school. "I assure you I am not only innocent of participating in this adventure but I have also little understanding of what you are all talking about."
"Thank you, Mr Hyatt." I said." You have my sympathy. Now, Mr Batalia, would you like to attempt to answer the question you posed to my husband?"
"What? How you ended up on Mars?"
"Yes. And if I you could sprinkle it with some veracity, James and I would be very grateful."
"Very well. This is what I think. Urquhart is on the right track. The gravitational ripple distorted space-time to such a degree that the space-time continuum for Mars and Earth momentarily joined. This caused the time lines to join rather like the U tube. You go back to 536 AD on Earth and you swing around the bend to Mars. Similarly, if you're on Mars, if you go back to the catastrophe there you swing around to the one on Earth."
James joined in again. "So, at the event, time looks like this."
He then retrieved a piece of paper and drew a large U and wrote Mars above one upright of the letter U and Earth above the other. He then drew a horizontal line under it with a label 536 AD. "This is what you’re saying for the world we can see?"
"Yes that’s right."
"Now," said James, who I was glad to see had re-found his enthusiasm for explanation again, said, "If I draw another U like this."
He drew an inverted U underneath of the same size as the other. "Then this represents time before the event."
"Exactly." said Mr Batalia. "The time before the catastrophe is separated from us. Though I don't know whether the two time lines are joined in a U like that or still separated."
I now at last had a little more comprehension of this pan-dimensional world and asked, ""So does that mean the history before the event does not reach this world?"
"But it must,” said James, “Otherwise the people who survived in the sixth century would not be as advanced as they are."
"You're right, Urquhart. They haven't started from scratch. They know metal technologies and are wearing clothes."
"So those who survived brought their histories or past memories with them across the break." I said.
Mr Wells I noticed was now standing and pondering something. He looked at the sleeping Martian in the glass jar then at us. "Yes. That is the conundrum. The people here can remember the past but apparently we cannot travel back in time past the event. What does that mean for us?"
“Nothing, really,” said James, “This world has survived into the future relatively ok and the only thing that is different is as this world goes farther into the future the more stars and galaxies they will see. Personally I’d leave everything alone and go home.”
This was comfortable logic. But there was still the Martian sitting in the corner. If there was nothing to do, then why was it here? Unfortunately, when I broached this to everyone, James decided to do one of his inexplicable actions whose consequences only later in hindsight am I normally able understand and forgive.
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Chapter 10
J.
Sometimes Elizabeth makes a suggestion which at the time seems of little significance until I decide to explore it.
Although it would be nice to go home the presence of the Martian had created a nagging doubt in my mind that something was unfinished.
It was the inability to cross the time-event that was causing me the problem. I just couldn’t let it go. But to cross the barrier and possibly join the past to the future we needed to see in higher dimensions. This was where the Martian came in. I felt that if I could communicate with it somehow I might get somewhere. I decided to go over to it and lift it out of the glass jar.
As I approached the jar I remembered at Helmsley how light and fragile they were. And how they slowly floated up to the sky assisted by my boot as though gravity did not affect them. Unfortunately, as I touched the jar the creature shimmered and vanished.
I turned around, noticed the rather shocked faces on the remainder of my audience and attempted, rather stupidly, to shrug my action off. "Oh well, it looks like I’ve managed to lose the only way out of this dilemma. Might as well go home.”
This had no effect on my audience who remained stunned for what seemed a minute
Wells was the first to speak. “If you are wondering where it has gone, I think you will find it is in the time machine waiting for you.”
I didn’t like the sound of that 'you' bit. Nor, looking at Elizabeth, did she. That was going to be our only route out of here and back to home. How did Wells know where it was? Was he in constant communication with them? And if so, how?
I tried rather weakly to get out of him what I knew was coming. “Come on, Wells. This isn’t fair! We seem to be the only ones here doing all the work here and taking all the risks. We only just got back from the edge by a stroke of luck.”
“Unfortunately,” he said, “It only wants to talk with you two."
"And why is that?" I said trying to control my voice.
"Because only you two and your sister can travel through time unaided by any device.”
"What do you mean, only us? ..." I searched back in my mind right back to when I had first met Elizabeth. I suddenly realised everyone else had travelled back and forth in time only by the aid of machines or portals, including Marco. Even Wells had said his corporeal self was stuck in the his own present. Once again we found ourselves in a situation where there was no escape.
"So now I've got a pet Martian waiting to take us on a journey which no one else can do?"
Wells gave a sympathetic though not reassuring nod.
What a nightmare!
Elizabeth added to my woes by saying rath
er crossly to me. "God, James! If only you had not touched that jar. We could have jumped into the time machine and flown safely back to our home. Now instead it is in there waiting for us with God knows what plans to entertain us!"
There was another moment of silence while I did my best to avoided Elizabeth's gaze.
Then she said, rather loudly to make sure we understood her annoyance "Right. Obviously by your silence there is no other choice so I am going to change my clothes. I am not going to have another expensive dress ruined by James dragging me through another hedge backwards."
And with that she stormed out of the room. There was rather an embarrassed silence for about ten minutes in the room as everybody tried to pretend nothing untoward had happened and ignored the sound of loud footsteps, banging of drawers and cupboards accompanied by almost inaudible mutterings emanating from the ceiling above. Eventually she returned with a carpet bag and wearing tight leggings, walking boots, a half-buttoned shirt and a suede dark brown jacket fitted with enough pockets to keep a poacher happy. I don't know what bra she was wearing but I made a mental note to buy her another half dozen at the earliest opportunity when normal relationships were restored, which I hoped would be not too far in the distant future.
However, I digress, as the effect on the Victorians was worth recording, especially Hyatt who had gone rather pink and was having difficulty keeping his eyes off her chest and bottom. Mind you I couldn't blame him. She did look good if you ignored the rather unsympathetic expression on her face. Her father, however, could not resist intervening and said in a rather unconvincing voice that comes from having two daughters who normally win an argument, "I cannot really allow you to go out dressed like that, Lizzy."
"I think after your treatment of me, Father, I think I will wear what I wish! And will you kindly address me as Elizabeth!" Ouch! Then just as I thought I might be off the hook she turned to me, grabbed my hand quite roughly and said, "Come on then, Captain Dunderhead. Let us go and see what porridge you have landed us in this time."
And with that I was dragged out of the door.
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E.
We entered the accursed machine again in an uncomfortable silence after not a little discussion on the difference between suggestions and consequential actions. However, we were quickly distracted from our contemplation of James’ weaknesses when we discovered, sitting on the Mars globe, the creature. As we stood there wondering what to do, and also speculating who would speak first, I heard a noise behind us and on sharply turning, observed the door closing and locking by itself. I now had that distinct feeling of one who boards the wrong train and only finds out when it starts to move out of the station.
I involuntarily moved closer to James and felt his hand reaching for mine. I have to admit despite our quarrel I only momentarily resisted his offer.
The Martian, no doubt sensing we were now safely ensconced, or trapped, inside the machine awoke and changing its hue, unfurled its gossamer wings. As they began to vibrate we and the room became strangely blurred and our bodies seemed to spread into rainbows of ghostly form. The colours slowly extended to fill the room and I realised that we were seeing ourselves as the Martians did: outside time and stretching into the past and future. I turned to James. He looked almost transparent for I could see his body through his clothes. I knew I would appear the same to him but it did not worry me for I had become immersed in this beautiful detachment from the material world. But just as I had succumbed to its fascination we suddenly rose up into the air, or more precisely up into space! We held each other tightly; all thought of that little altercation forgotten as we sought comfort in each other.
When I opened my eyes I found we were floating or flying above the planets. I could see Halley's comet just beyond Mars with its long tale stretching towards the Sun. And everywhere a backdrop of stars. Then something even more incredible happened. Those planetary spheres which floated suspended in space began first to elongate and then extrude into twisting corkscrew rods. As I watched the beautiful intricate tubes snake around the Sun I suddenly realised that I was seeing the paths of the planets as they passed through time from the past to the future. But then I noticed stars disappearing. It reminded me of a moonless star-bright night when invisible clouds rise above the horizon and unexpectedly hide the starlight. As I watched more and more stars disappeared. It was like a black phantom shroud which enveloped the starry firmament. I sensed its invisible cloak coming closer and closer until it rippled quietly and slowly through the ever lengthening tubes of the planets distorting their paths into almost impossible shapes. Suddenly a dark wave of this black sea caused the winding space-time rods of Mars and Earth to push together until they were almost touching and bounced back. Halley’s comet, had now changed its path and was heading toward Mars! Just as I thought they were going to crash into each other, the scene froze as though someone had stopped a film in mid-motion. For a moment nothing happened then the twirling rods slowly contracted to their end points until they became spherical planets again and Mars and the comet hung impossibly close, frozen in time.
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J.
The softness of her almost transparent body pressed against me, coupled with the aroma of my favourite perfume which I'm sure she must have purposely put on before coming downstairs to give me stick, caused some distraction from the vision before me. What I saw generally confirmed what we had deduced about the event. But it still didn't give me a clue as to why the Martian wanted us. As if to answer my thoughts the creature reached down to the Martian globe and moved the pointer across the surface. We literally catapulted from our little viewpoint in space to back inside the machine. The wall screens lit up and we watched us fall down to Mars to the Marina Valley. I felt my stomach leaving me behind. But as we approached the valley, unlike our last visit, where it was a dry deep chasm, now it was a torrent of churning flowing water. Except incredibly it was frozen in time! It was like a 3D photograph in which we could pass through! Then before we could catch our breaths we were racing across waves and spray held in suspended animation and up the valley towards the Tharis volcanoes. What was really scary was above us. It was Halley’s Comet, its great tails, jagged and broken, stretching across the sky. It couldn’t have been more than a hundred miles away.
We came out of the head of the valley on to the Tharis Plain. Being used to the distant horizons of Earth my mind couldn’t handle the nearness of the Martian horizon, behind which slowly rose the great shield volcano of Olympus. It was impossibly huge. I had read somewhere it was about fifteen miles high and twice the area of England but from where we sat it looked as big as the planet
Then just as we approached the Arsia Volcano the machine took a steep dive into a gaping hole. Elizabeth screamed and I possibly increased though not necessarily improved her vocabulary with my contribution. The accelerations and decelerations should have squashed us flat like strawberry jam against the walls half a dozen times but we felt nothing. We continued our descent down a tunnel until we emerged into a gigantic cavern. Its floor rushed up to us but just as I thought we were going to smash into the ground we stopped in an instant a few feet above the surface and the screen went blank.
As we stood there exhausted from the ride I noticed the machine was now quiet. In fact, there was not a sound except our breathing. According to the time on the blue display it was 536 AD. We were at the time fracture.
We waited what seemed ages for something else to happen but nothing did, just a quiet room with a Martian who had now returned to its normal colourless stone-like appearance.
After a while Elizabeth withdrew her arms from me and whispered. "So what do we do now? I presume we are not going to implement any of those extraordinary suggestions you made during the descent."
I was a bit reticent to say anything after our recent conversations but carried on anyway.
"I'm afraid Captain Conker Head hasn't got a clue."
; "It is Dunderhead. Do you not listen to anything I say?"
"Obviously only your suggestions."
"Then I will endeavour to keep them to myself in future."
Silence again accompanied by the withdrawal of her body.
After a further moment she said, "Very well., on this occasion I will make allowances for your actions if you take up my suggestion to open the door."
I decided to act rather than reply, for I have found from experience that a woman should always have the last word in an argument, for if the man has the last word it usually results in the start of a new argument. I reached for the door but to my surprise it opened by itself. We looked at each other and still saying nothing to ensure compliance with my rule, I shrugged my shoulders resignedly and went through the opening. Elizabeth, I was glad to see followed close behind.
The cavern was lit by an orange luminous glow which seemed to emanate from the walls and floor. They were incredibly smooth and featureless as though they had been coated with plastic. Up above, far above, there was a circular opening to a dark sky. The place was completely empty if you discounted the sleek cobalt blue Martian spaceship hovering motionlessly in the centre. It was long and smooth with four fin-like wings. It reminded me of one of those spaceships you find on the cover of a 1950s SF magazine. It was usually accompanied by a square-jawed hero and his rather pneumatically inflated girlfriend who, judging by their enthusiastic expressions, were ready to take on the universe. Unfortunately, try as I might I could not see anybody fitting their description anywhere in the cavern.
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